October 19, 2011

Great idea. A protest itself is a lot like a reality show anyway. There's a lot posing and performing for cameras. With MTV involved, there will be better editing and more poking into the details of the motivations of individuals and the interpersonal friction. As they say on in the "Real World" introduction: find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real. Scoff if you like, but I bet it's more real than what we get in the news.

And, MTV? If you want some protest vibe for your show, how about "Real World Madison"?

48 comments:

OWS is issuing its own casting calls: friends in New Orleans remarked that when the protest marched through Jackson Square last weekend there was only a cadre of 4 or 5 organizers with the balance of the group made up of the readily identifiable homeless people of the neighborhood obviously incented to hold a sign and walk a few blocks for their reward.

From little red wagon to little red book. Perhaps it's part of their maturation maturation process. At any rate, it's more a pose than a position. They're not truly there to protest, but rather to celebrate their significance, commitment, ideals, and general all around special goodness.....In America, there has always been a disturbing overlap between the leisure class and the revolutionary class.

What is the message? I hear a lot of demands, pretty much the same kind if demands you hear from 8 year olds but for a serious political movement what is it? Give us more corporate money? Free education, healthcare and retirement? Top 1% should pay all the taxes?

Probably several, I imagine many people show up for different reasons. I saw a few "Impeach Obama" signs yesterday, so who knows? I would say if there is one theme, it's that they want to change the system.

The one here in STL is, for every day except for the very first weekend, a joke.

However, I fully expect the usual suspects to converge on us tonight for game 1. From what I can see so far, the city isn't fucking around security-wise. It was nowhere near this tight the last time we won in '06. That's 2006, not 1906 for you Cub fans out there.

What will be interesting to see is the dynamic that plays out when the target audience (young folk, I guess) watches this new show, and how their working parents chime in with opinions on the occupiers' tactics, beliefs, etc.

In other words, probably most young kids aren't paying much attention to OWS, but as a TV show, it will get its message out more effectively. How will it be processed?

I mean if the complaint is DC being too cozy with Wall Street does it just mean banker and financial types or say, GM and the unions? How about certain energy companies that get guaranteed loans? Or public sector unions where government relationships are just as cozy?

Is the rich paying their fair share mean footing 70%, 80% of the tax revenue? All of it? Are these protestors with their ipads, iPhones, laptops really think they're poor?

If the message is different from city to city then that's the definition of incoherence.

City officials said Tuesday they may have to shut down the Occupy Oakland tent city in coming days because it is attracting rats, alcohol and illegal drug use…

This comes on the heels of increasing reports of illegal drug and alcohol abuse, fighting, and sexual harassment in and around the camp of about 100 tents, Boyd said.

Or this:

protesters got fed up with 27-year-old Dave Park, who frequently showed up drunk to Zuccotti Park and allegedly groped several women, protesters said.

After repeated incidents and failed intervention attempts by Occupy Wall Street’s security team, the protesters finally went to the NYPD for help in removing Park, according to Paul Isaac, a member of the security team.

@ Scott: Wall Street greed and sharing the wealth, I guess. I haven't been paying that much attention. One of my main points was that the target audience would be more readily reached through reality TV. The other was to wonder if parents and others would point out shortcomings to these ideas.

You have to admit BoA appears clueless. First a $5 debit card usage fee. Next lay off 30,000 workers. Then give two top execs 11 million golden parachutes. Whoever still banks with BofA gets what they deserve.

Let the market decide! Your getting there garage. I see definite progress.

So MTV wants to do a real world..OWS? Let's see. A bunch of young slackers, living in someone else's house, fed and entertainment and booze paid for by someone else. And get paid to participate. Are we sure MTV didn't start this weeks ago?

“Obama has brought in more money from employees of banks, hedge funds and other financial service companies than all of the GOP candidates combined, according to a Washington Post analysis of contribution data.”

Don't worry garbage, you'll come up with some lame, incoherent reasoning to vote for Obama.